BENGALURU: “Why should I come back to Infosys? I am not interested,” Nandan Nilekani told a confidant last Friday evening, when he was asked about a probable return to the beleaguered company. Nilekani’s statement that evening came even as the Bengaluru-headquartered company was dealing with the aftermath of CEO Vishal Sikka’s abrupt resignation and subsequent scathing statement from the board of the company attacking founder NR Narayana Murthy that morning.

Exactly a week later, Nilekani is back as non-executive vice chairman of the $10-billion company he co-founded in 1981 along with NR Narayana Murthy and five others in a Pune suburb. “Joined Infosys at 26, re-joined it at 62. Life does turn a full circle!,” Nilekani tweeted at 9 am on Friday — almost exactly seven days after Sikka had posted his farewell blog titled “Moving on.” For those who know Nilekani, this comeback is nothing short of a miracle — one that not many saw coming.

ET spoke to over half a dozen executives to piece together the story of what made Nilekani change his mind and turn the clock back. “Nandan had drawn a clear line between himself and Infosys, once he left the company. He had adjusted to life after Infosys very well. He wrote books, and got busy with a very public life with Aadhaar, politics and his funding of startups,” said a veteran industry leader who shares a cordial relationship with Nilekani.

“Whenever I have tried to pick his mind on the company, his answer has been: I don’t comment on Infosys. His comeback is a miracle of sorts,” he added.

This was Nilekani’s stance, even as Murthy became increasingly vocal about his concerns over governance at Infosys in the past year. “Murthy was always vocal about his feelings.

In fact, he was sometimes peeved that the other promoters did not speak out against the board even though they privately agreed and voted on important matters on his cue,” said a former board member, who is still in touch with Murthy.

But all that changed last Friday when the board accused Murthy of being responsible for Sikka’s shock exit and for holding the company to ransom under the threat of media attacks to demand operational and management changes.

“That letter was a dumb move,” says the board member quoted above. “Once you do something like that, you don’t expect people who have stuck together through thick and thin to not rally around the father figure of the group — Murthy,” the board member added.

The wheels started moving on Monday morning. At that time, the Infosys board looked like it still had the upper hand. Both parties — founders and the board — were preparing for road shows to get institutional investors on their side. “The endgame is an EGM. The founders are preparing a plate of directors who they can present to the shareholders,” a source close to Murthy had told ET then.

Over the weekend, DN Prahlad, who had been appointed to the board on Murthy’s suggestion last year, broached the topic of his return with Nilekani, querying him specifically on his willingness to take on an advisory or non-executive chairman role.

Even on Monday, Nilekani was reluctant to take another stint at Infosys, even as the stock value plunged. Infosys, by then, had lost Rs 34,000 crore in market capitalisation. On the same day, Prahlad roped in board members Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Ravi Venkatesan to convince Nilekani to take a role at Infosys.

“The logic offered to Nandan was that he was an insider with a proven track record. That institutional investors would decisively back him if he throws his hat in and most importantly, that would have Mr Muthy’s approval,” said the source mentioned above. Nilekani was still reluctant — citing that he would need a clean slate to start afresh at Infosys.

As news started to spread that Nilekani might make a comeback as an “advisor” to the board, on Tuesday a group of top executives of 12 large mutual funds and insurers wrote to Infosys’ board, asking that Nilekani be invited to join the board in a “suitable capacity”.

“That was a clear signal to the board that they would lose this battle if a shareholder vote came up,” said an Infosys executive. By Thursday morning, the battle was truly over. “Seshasayee had volunteered to quit even earlier but with Nandan stepping in — he was willing to resign immediately,” said one of the executives mentioned above. “Nilekani’s comeback was a conspiracy of circumstances rather than elaborate design,” he added.

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